


Fireflies

by xompeii



Category: King Falls AM (Podcast)
Genre: First Date, First Kiss, Florida, Fluff, Kissing, M/M, Plans For The Future, Pre-Canon, Pre-Relationship, college age, university of florida
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-21
Updated: 2019-05-21
Packaged: 2020-03-08 23:00:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18904429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xompeii/pseuds/xompeii
Summary: Sammy stops talking when Jack’s breath catches. The little orange and yellow lights are starting to drift up from the overgrowth. Jack’s first thought is fire. Wildfire. It takes him a second to realize it’s not. It’s fireflies. It’s beautiful. He glances at Sammy, who’s got the biggest grin on his face. Like he knew Jack would be amazed.He was right.





	Fireflies

Jack is stretched out on the floor. Two separate fans are working to keep him cooled off as he reads and re-reads the same page of assigned reading material for next semester. Despite all the effort to keep cool, it still feels like his shirt is sticking to his skin in the apartment he shares with Lily. Their AC unit is busted and the landlord can’t get anyone out to fix it until after the weekend. Lily was smart to go stay with a friend for the next few days. 

He flips to the next page and starts reading, and has to flip back a page and re-read again before he finally shoves a bookmark in it and tosses it to the side. He lets himself lay there, as the sun is sinking low outside, and he doesn’t bother to get up to turn on a light. They’ve been keeping the lights off to compensate for the use of fans. He listens to them whir before flipping over and letting them hit his backside for a while.

There’s a banging on the door just as it’s starting to get too dark to actually do anything. Jack makes a noise of contentment as he hoists himself off the floor and heads to the door. Only opening it a crack and already frowning at the moist heat spilling inside. 

Sammy looks perfect. Jack wonders if it’s because he was born and raised in the state. Though Sammy still refuses to disclose where in the state he’s from, just that he is, in fact, a natural Floridian. Despite all odds, even his outfit seems to look good today. Jack’s not sure how many times he’s threatened to burn Sammy’s clothes based on how horrible some of the patterns on his shirts seem to get. But today he’s wearing something with a subtle pattern, and Jack has to admit, he looks stunning. 

“You busy?” Sammy asks. Not looking past Jack into the dark apartment.

“Studying,” Jack says.

“It’s summer.” Sammy frowns, “I know you’re not scheduled for tonight, come with me.”

“Where?”

“It’s a surprise.” Sammy smiles, “Some natural Florida beauty, or whatever. All you’ve seen is the city, and it’s Gainesville. It’s not even a fun city, like Orlando.”

“Please don’t remind me.” Jack sighs, “Fuck, fine, give me five minutes to get changed.”

He lets Sammy in, and Sammy stands awkwardly at the doorway. The door closed behind him. It’s dark in the apartment, but not outside, so Jack almost loses him for a moment when He comes back out. Sammy opens the door and turns one of the fans off as Jack gets the other and locks up behind himself. 

“Your truck has AC right?”

“Mhmm.” Sammy jingles his keys, “Better than staying in your sad dark apartment.”

Jack had a problem. Lily had made him very aware of it. The last semester had been spent trying to deal with it. The summer had been a nightmare of half trying to avoid Sammy and half trying to spend as much time as he could with him, because he knew eventually, they would have to say goodbye to each other. Today was one of those days where he didn’t want to avoid Sammy, where he wanted to take in everything he could about Sammy so he could remember it.

Two more semesters and they would be graduating. They would be getting jobs, probably in different cities, different states. Jack was pretty sure that when it came down to it, he’d follow Lily to Seattle. That’s where she was aiming. He might be able to negotiate her down to Portland, just to be closer to family. 

He had no idea what Sammy was planning. If he would stay in this godforsaken state or leave it, head up the coast to New York, maybe not the city, but somewhere nearby. The thought of that long-distance friendship dwindling down to a Christmas card when they were both in their 40s. Jack didn’t like the idea that they might not even get that.

“Hey-” Sammy snaps his fingers in front of Jack’s face, “No existential crisis in my truck.”

“Sorry.” Jack gives him an apologetic look, but Sammy doesn’t see it. He’s driving. “Where are you going after we graduate?”

“What?” Sammy takes his eyes off the road for a half second, then he looks back, and Jack can’t read his face like this. “Uh, I haven’t really planned that yet. I don’t know. Where are you going?”

“Lily wants to go to Seattle,” Jack says. It’s not really an answer.

“Where do  _ you _ want to go?” Sammy asks again. 

“California. Maybe San Diego. Maybe- maybe San Francisco.” He watches as Sammy gets off the highway they’ve been traveling on and takes him through a smaller town. 

“You wanna go home?” Sammy’s tone has something to it Jack can’t quite pinpoint. “See your family.”

“More or less.” Jack hasn’t exactly told Sammy why He and Lily haven’t really gone home the past two years. The disaster that left most of his family split on the outcome. “Whatever family wants to see me I guess.”

“Oh.” Sammy sounds almost understanding when he turns onto another road. This one a little less put together and filled with cracks and old repair jobs. He pulls into a small gravel parking lot. Jack looks out over the scene in front of him. It’s a park. Old, rundown, in desperate need of repair. The jungle gym is overrun with weeds. The metal of it rusting, but the picnic benches are still pretty clear of the overgrowth. The sky is orange and purple, and the streetlamps barely light up any of the park. Sammy Kills the engine and swings out one side of the truck. 

“This is starting to feel like a murder movie,” Jack says as he gets out on his side. Sammy grabs a cooler and something else from the back of the truck and head over to the benches. Jack rolls his eyes. 

“I told Lily where we were going, so she knows where to look for bodies.” He’s dismissive as he hops up and sits on the top of a bench. Looking out over the overgrown field. “This park hasn’t been used in years.”

“Yeah, not doing much to convince me I’m not going to die.” Jack follows and sits down next to Sammy. Sammy sets the cooler on one of the seats and opens it up. It’s sodas and not beers, Jacks thankful, only because it means He’s not going to have to wait for Sammy to sober up if something bad does happen. “And this is the natural beauty of Florida? A rundown park?

Crickets and frogs are starting a nightly ritual of songs around them. Jack’s pretty sure that there’s an alligator nearby. It’s Florida, there always is. He’s not sure where all of these creatures could be, but if the feeling on his arm is anything to go by, he’s going to need something to ease the bug bites he’s going to have. 

Sammy puts a lantern out next. The electric thing casting a glow not very far, but far enough that they can see by it. He picks out a coke after Sammy snags one for himself and leans back a bit. Watching the darkness creep in.

“So abandoned park at sunset?”

“Just wait,” Sammy says. There’s a bit of a tease in his tone. “Patience Young Padawan.”

Jack shoves his shoulder and Sammy laughs ducking his head. “Okay Jar Jar.”

“I am not-”

Sammy stops talking when Jack’s breath catches. The little orange and yellow lights are starting to drift up from the overgrowth. Jack’s first thought is fire. Wildfire. It takes him a second to realize it’s not. It’s fireflies. It’s beautiful He glances at Sammy, who’s got the biggest grin on his face. Like he knew Jack would be amazed. 

He was right.

Jack felt his heart swell a bit as he realized Sammy brought him out here just to see his face when the fireflies swelled up out of the brush. He did this for him.

“Go stand out there.” Sammy jerks his head. “They’re not going to bite.” 

Jack did. He set his soda down on the table and walked out to a fairly empty patch of grass. Fireflies curiously came at him. One even landed on his cupped hand. Jack smiled down at it.

_ Click _ .  _ Ptzz. _

There was a flash of light and then the sound of a Polaroid picture printing out. Sammy waved in the air before setting it down on the table. Jack shot him a look, and Sammy raised the camera again. Jack took a second but he covered his face just in time for the next picture to be taken. “No!”

“I wanted to capture the moment!” Sammy shouts back.  ”This is the closest you’re going to get to actually seeing  _ swamp lights. _ ” Sammy snorts out a laugh when Jack flips him off. He raises the camera but thinks better of it. Instead, he starts waving around the second picture he took. Jack has no idea if they’re going to turn out alright. 

“I  _ will _ see a UFO someday,” Jack says as he gets back up on the table. The fireflies follow him over. Landing on the table, and on the pictures, and on Sammy. Sammy swats them away. Frowning as they just take it as an encouragement to land on him more. 

When he manages to get them off of him, they swirl around them. Making it look like they’re floating in the stars for a moment before dispersing again and wandering back into the brush. There are still dozens floating around, dotting the area. 

“Do fireflies usually do that?” Jack finally asks. He takes a sip of his soda and looks pointedly at anything but Sammy.

Sammy’s looking himself over, trying to figure out if any more fireflies are on him. “No?” He seems uncertain, but then he grins, getting all sappy all of a sudden, “Maybe they like you.” He leans in closer when he says it, almost getting song-songy in tone. Jack realizes how nice Sammy smells in an instant, he’s that close. 

“Maybe they just like the fact that they have company tonight.” Jack turns his head abruptly, trying to will away the sudden warmth in his cheeks. 

When he finally peeks back at Sammy’s face, he could swear it was disappointment there. Sammy doesn’t move away. He takes a sip of his soda, and clears his throat, “So you said you’d never really seen fireflies.”

“I haven’t,” Jack says. He looks around at the ones that are still swirling around them, dancing in the air. This can’t be normal. He’s never seen anything act this way, not naturally, but he knows already it’ll ruin the mood if he says it might be supernatural. He keeps that to himself, but he knows this is somehow special, like it’s a moment of peace, just for them. 

Sammy doesn’t seem exactly worried about their behavior, but he looks curious. It feels like a sort of blanket, protection for the two of them against the rest of the world. It’s oddly calming for Jack.

“Lily is going to hate Seattle,” Sammy says, Breaking them out of the silence they’ve been sitting in for a while. “Pacific Northwest. She’d hate the rain.”

“I don’t know, it’s got bigfoot.” Jack smiles when he catches the shake of Sammy’s head. He’s still smiling too.

“She’s not going to go for bigfoot.”

“Yeah, well, Bigfoot is for me.”

“Oh?” Sammy’s smirk is playful, “Jack Wright, Bigfoot Hunter?”

“More like Bigfoot lover,” Sammy starts to laugh the second Jack gets it out, and he shoves his shoulder, “Not like that!”

“Jack and Bigfoot, sitting in a tree.”

“Fuck you, Stevens.” He grabs blindly for the snacks Sammy brought and pulls out a bag of chips.

“Why not convince Lily to go back to California?” Sammy is serious again, “I mean, I know you’ve got family there, but your parents weren’t exactly-”

“I miss my cousins.” Jack could swear Sammy gets closer again, just leaning into him as they talk. “What about you? You don’t talk about your family much.”

“I don’t really like to.”

“Why?”

“Mom was kinda strict growing up,” He shrugs, Jack can feel his warmth now. The air cooling around them, “Dad didn’t usually get home until after he’d finished drinking with his buddies.”

“What about siblings?”

“Only child.”

“Lucky,” Jack nudges his shoulder, but Sammy doesn’t exactly seem up to joking about it. So Jack drops it.

A firefly lands right on Sammy’s nose again. Sammy makes a noise and swats at it, clearing it away from himself. He looks flustered all over, and then a few more come close and start floating around Sammy, landing and flying away as soon as Sammy swats at them. 

It’s adorable. Jack’s laughing, covering his mouth and smiling. He scoops one off of Sammy and lets it crawl in his hands before letting it fly away. He's never had a problem with bugs, not even remarkably persistent ones like these. 

Sammy looks ruffled up when the last of them finally start drifting back to the brush. He’s settled right into Jack’s side. Jack kinda wants to lean up and kiss the confusion off his face.

And then he does.

He goes from laughing at Sammy’s confused face to kissing him. And Sammy goes from tensed to kissing him right back.

It’s perfect.

Jack puts a hand on Sammy’s cheek. And Sammy sets his hand beside Jack’s hip as he gets more comfortable. He doesn’t pull away. And Jack hopes that’s a good sign. They only stop to breath. It goes for a while like that. Until Sammy slips and Jack’s suddenly below him, lying on the picnic bench. He pulls away, flustered.

“I- oh, um,” Sammy sputters his words as he pulls back. 

“We don’t have to go any farther,” Jack says softly, trying to ease him out of whatever this is. Jack braces for rejection. He doesn’t know if Sammy’s about to tell him he didn’t mean to do that. If they’re going to ignore this ever happening, or Maybe Sammy might run away right now and leave him stranded. His head starts filling in about a million possible worst-case scenarios until Sammy cuts him off mid-thought.

“It’s not that. That was- it was amazing.” He shifts over and lays on his back beside Jack. There’s not much room on top of the table, but there’s enough. He points his finger, “It’s the other thing I wanted to show you.”

Jack follows his pointing finger to the sky and loses his breath at the cloudless sky. Even with the streetlights not too far away, they’re far enough from the city that the sky is filled with constellations. 

He lived in a city back in California. The best he could get was one or two stars in the sky. On one night he was really lucky and managed to pick out Orion's belt. But that was all he ever knew. There are more stars in the sky than he’s seen in his entire life. 

“It’s so perfect,” He breathes out. 

A shooting star breaks across the sky above them, and Jack makes a wish. A wish that they could stay like this forever.

“I just thought maybe you’d like to see the stars tonight,” Sammy shifts a bit beside Jack. “I, um, I didn't mean for this to be a date or anything, sorry.”

“Oh?” Jack knows he doesn’t hide the disappointment well.

“It kinda feels like a date now though.” Sammy sits up a bit to peer down at Jack.

“Was it okay that I kissed you?” Jack asks.

“Yeah,” Sammy sounds enthusiastic when he says it, “I’m really glad you did actually.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.” He glances at the sky, then back at Jack.

Jack decides to go for it and asks, “Can I kiss you again?”

“Yeah.”

Jack moves so he’s on top this time. And he makes sure Sammy really is okay with it before he kisses him again. It’s perfect. The fireflies, the stars, the crickets, and even the frogs. It’s dark, and Sammy tastes sweet on his tongue. Jack feels hopeful for whatever this is. This thing that he didn’t realize was a possibility until tonight. He wants to hold onto it and never let it go.


End file.
